1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball catching tool as used for playing baseball or softball or the like, and particularly to a ball catching tool with outer leather parts on a rear side of a main body of the ball catching tool being formed to cover a back of one""s hand while an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one""s hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one""s hand.
2. Description of the Related Art
A ball catching tool with outer leather parts on a rear side of a main body of the ball catching tool being formed to cover a back of one""s hand while an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one""s hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one""s hand is conventionally known for use as a ball catching tool in playing baseball. When using such a ball catching tool, the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side, which is connected to a main outer leather portion on the finger side, is tightened to one""s hand for restricting the ball catching tool from slipping off from one""s hand or from a positional shift thereof with respect to the hand when catching a ball for thus enabling easy catching.
However, such a ball catching tool presented the following drawbacks due to the arrangement of tightening the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side, which is connected to the main outer leather portion on the finger side, with respect to one""s hand.
That is, when the ball catching tool in a condition in which it is attached to one""s hand, the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side that is tightened to the hand hardly allows any positional changes in a longitudinal direction of the hand owing to its tightening force. When one tries to bend each finger when performing catching, tension force preventing deformation of the main outer leather portion in a warping manner will be applied from the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side to the main outer leather portion accompanying catching operations so that the main outer leather portion will be in a restrained condition. The main outer leather portion will thus hardly be deformed in a warping manner so that it would often happen that it was difficult to catch while firmly bending each finger.
One possible measure would be to form only the outer leather portion between the main outer leather portion on the finger side and the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side on the wrist side by using an elastic material for avoiding tension force that prevents deformation of the main outer leather portion in a warping manner accompanying catching operations through this elastic material and enabling easy deformation of the main outer leather portion in a warping manner. However, such a measure is not appropriate since it leads to another drawback that partial degradation in strength is caused at a portion of the elastic material portion which strength is inferior to that of the outer leather parts.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object thereof to provide a ball catching tool that enables easier catching operations while being of an arrangement in which an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one""s hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one""s hand.
More particularly, the characteristic arrangement of the ball catching tool according to the present invention is comprised of:
a main body of the ball catching tool with outer leather parts on a rear side being formed to cover a back of one""s hand while an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one""s hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one""s hand, and
a joint outer leather portion that is provided at the main body of the ball catching tool for blocking and jointing the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side and a main outer leather portion on a finger side,
wherein the joint outer leather portion includes a plurality of strip-like outer leather pieces with longitudinal directions of the respective pieces being aligned to extend from the main outer leather portion on the finger side to the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side to be entirely aligned in width directions of the hand and with respective outer leather pieces being fixed at both ends in longitudinal directions of the pieces without being tightly bonded in width directions of the hand.
The following actions and effects may be exhibited through the above arrangement.
[a] One""s hand is inserted from the hand inserting inlet into the main body of the ball catching tool, and the outer leather portion on the hand inserting inlet side is tightened and attached to the hand. With this arrangement, it is possible to reliably prevent slipping off of the ball catching tool from the hand or positional shift thereof with respect to the hand when performing catching operations.
[b] When the tool is in a condition in which it is attached to one""s hand as in [a] above, the outer leather portion on a hand inserting side that is tightened to one""s hand may hardly be changed in position in a longitudinal direction of the hand through its tightening force with respect to the hand. However, according to the arrangement of the present invention, the joint outer leather portion blocking and jointing the outer leather portion on the hand inserting inlet side and a main outer leather portion on a finger side is comprised of a plurality of strip-like outer leather pieces with longitudinal directions of the respective pieces being aligned to extend from the main outer leather portion on the finger side to the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side entirely aligned in width directions of the hand and with respective outer leather pieces being fixed at both ends in longitudinal directions of the pieces without being tightly bonded in width directions of the hand, and restraining force of the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side acting onto the main outer leather portion that tries to deform to warp accompanying the bending of each finger at the time of catching is restricted at intermediate of the strip-like outer leather pieces of the joint outer leather portion. In other words, the main outer leather portion will be substantially separated from the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side which position is hardly changeable accompanying the catching operations so that the main outer portion will be readily bend to a palm side and may be easily deformed in a warping manner.
[c] The above arrangements [a] and [b] enable it to perform catching while firmly bending each finger so as to enclose a ball with inner leather parts corresponding to the palm side of the main body of the ball catching tool.
[d] In the joint outer leather portion comprised of strip-like outer leather pieces, the outer leather pieces are of a strength that approximates that of the remaining outer leather portions, no partial degradations in strength of the outer leather parts will occur at the joint outer leather portion.
Thus, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a ball catching tool that enables easy catching while being of an arrangement in which an outer leather portion on a hand inserting side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one""s hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one""s hand.
It is preferable that the joint outer leather portion is arranged in that adjoining strip-like outer leather pieces are connected on a rear side of the outer leather pieces by means of a sheet material exhibiting elasticity.
The following actions and effects may be exhibited through the above arrangement.
[e] Since adjoining outer leather pieces are connected by means of an elastic sheet material so that the outer leather pieces are pulled to the back of one""s hand through the elasticity of the elastic sheet material when the fingers are bend, the joint outer leather portion will favorably fit to the back of one""s hand without escaping so as to enable reliable catching operations.
[f] Since the elastic sheet material connecting the outer leather pieces exhibits elasticity, the respective outer leather pieces will not be firmly bonded with respect to width directions of the hand, and the elastic sheet material will be of no hindrance in restricting the restraining force acting from the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side.
[g] The elastic sheet material formed on the rear side of the outer leather pieces will not be damaged since it is continuously protected by the outer leather pieces.
It is accordingly possible to provide a ball catching tool with which balls may be more easily caught.
It is preferable that the joint outer leather portion is arranged in that the respective strip-like outer leather pieces are arranged such that longitudinal directional edges on the finger side of outer leather pieces that are located farther away from the fingers are slipped under longitudinal directional edges on the opposite side of the fingers of the outer leather pieces that are located closer to the fingers in a partially overlapping manner, wherein the outer leather pieces that are closest to the fingers are joint to the main outer leather portion in a condition in which their longitudinal directional edges on the finger side are slipped under an end edge of the main outer leather portion in a partially overlapping manner whereas the outer leather pieces that are farthest from the fingers are joint to the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side in a condition in which an end edge of the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side is slipped under their longitudinal directional edges in a partially overlapping manner.
The following actions and effects may be exhibited through the above arrangement.
[h] Partial overlaps of the outer leather parts in which the finger side is formed upward and the hand inserting side is formed downward are formed between the strip-like outer leather pieces, between the outer leather piece that is closest to the fingers and the main outer leather portion, and between the outer leather piece that is farthest from the fingers and the main outer leather on the hand inserting side. Since these partial overlaps of outer leather parts are directed in a direction that is in line with a direction of movements of the opposite sided hand held in position or of movements of an approaching ball (forward direction), the outer leather pieces will not stand on end to be a hindrance at the time of holding the ball catching tool in position or of performing catching, and catching may be reliably performed.
It is preferable to employ an arrangement in which the longitudinal directional edge on the finger side of the outer leather piece that is closest to the fingers are jointed by fastening these to the end edge of the main outer leather portion, and in which the longitudinal directional edge on the finger side of the outer leather piece that is farthest from the fingers and the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side are jointed upon being connected on the rear side of the outer leather pieces through an elastic sheet material.
The following actions and effects may be exhibited through the above arrangement.
[i] The longitudinal directional edge on the finger side of the outer leather piece that is closest to the fingers is jointed by fastening the same to the end edge of the main outer leather portion, and the longitudinal directional edge on the finger side of the outer leather piece that is farthest from the fingers is connected to the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side through an elastic sheet material on the rear side of the outer leather pieces, and since the outer leather piece that is closest to the fingers and the outer leather piece that is farthest from the fingers are pulled towards the back of one""s hand when the fingers are bent which is affected by mounting the same to the main outer leather portion and by the elasticity of the elastic sheet material, the joint outer leather portion will not escape but favorably fit the back of one""s hand to ensure catching operations.
[j ] Even though the outer leather portion that is closest to the fingers is fastened to the main outer leather portion, the restraining force acting from the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side will be restricted until it reaches the outer leather portion that is closest to the fingers, and even though the outer leather portion that is farthest from the fingers is fastened to the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side, the restraining force acting from the leather portion on the hand inserting side will be restricted through the elasticity of the of the elastic sheet material connecting both members.
[k] Since the elastic sheet material located on the rear side of the outer leather pieces and the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side will not be damaged since it is continuously protected by the outer leather pieces and the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side.
It is preferable that it (the joint outer leather portion) is comprised of not more than four strip-like leather pieces.
The following actions and effects may be exhibited through the above arrangement.
[l] Since the number of outer leather pieces that comprise the joint outer leather portion is limited to a small number of not more than four pieces for the purpose of eliminating troublesome processing of the joint outer leather portion, it is possible to easily manufacture the same. In case the number of outer leather pieces that comprise the joint outer leather portion exceeds four, processing of the joint outer leather portion will become troublesome so as to increase its manufacturing costs.